The DocumentThe Document is a new kind of mash-up between documentaries and radio. It goes beyond clips and interviews, mining great stories from the raw footage of documentaries present, past and in-progress. A new episode is available every other Wednesday on iTunes and wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

To the PointA weekly reality-check on the issues Americans care about most. Host Warren Olney draws on his decades of experience to explore the people and issues shaping – and disrupting - our world. How did everything change so fast? Where are we headed? The conversations are informal, edgy and always informative. If Warren's asking, you want to know the answer.

There Goes the NeighborhoodLos Angeles is having an identity crisis. City officials tout new development and shiny commuter trains, while longtime residents are doing all they can to hang on to home. This eight-part series is supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

How David Mandel & his 'Veep' writers became "mini soothsayers"

For the past two seasons, former Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm writer David Mandel has been showrunning HBO's Veep. And while the show can have eerie parallels to reality, Mandel tells us that more often than not, it's real life that ends up imitating Veep.

FROM THIS EPISODE

TV-writer producer David Mandel is asked constantly if HBO's Veep is based on real-life politics. But the truth is that real life ends up imitating situations that seemed kinda crazy when he and the rest of the Veep writers made them up. Mandel tells us about overseeing Veep in the age of Trump, keeping track of the show's relentless torrent of vicious insults and how his wife's hands inspired one of the most famous episodes of Seinfeld.

After two mass shootings in one day, NBC pulled an episode of The Carmichael Show about a mass shooting. The network has not yet said whether the episode will air at a later date or if it will just be held indefinitely. Jerrod Carmichael lashed out at the network, saying pulling the episode "does a disservice to all of us."

The beginning of Season Six of the HBO comedy Veep finds Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, assuring the nation in a morning news interview that her post-White House life is going really well.

In reality, she's had to spend some time getting over her election defeat at what she insists was a spa. The season follows Selina and her luckless staffers as they try to cement her legacy through a memoir and a presidential library celebrating her very brief tenure in the oval office.

Our guest today is David Mandel, the Emmy-winning showrunner of Veep. He took over for series creator Armando Iannucci at the beginning of Season Five.

Mandel got his start on Saturday Night Live, and went on to write forSeinfeldandCurb Your Enthusiasm. He tells us about overseeingVeep in the age of Trump, keeping track of the show's relentless torrent of vicious insults and how his wife's hands inspired one of the most famous episodes ofSeinfeld.